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Saturday, September 14, 2013

Science teaches us that this whole universe was created about 1.4 billion years ago.

In addition, this universe has been expanding for these 1.4 billion years from a very tiny volume to this size of about 47 billion light years.

The point is that this universe is finite.

In this sense it is like a goldfish bowl. Then what is outside the bowl? This is the gravest question any living things in this universe can ask.

One thing sure is our way of thinking is restricted and effective only within this goldfish bowl. Outside, everything may be different. Even the fact or concept of death and life may be different as well as existence. Nonetheless our universe is part of the greater world including our space and the world outside this universe. We may be allowed to take a hint.

However it is somewhat horrible to think that there is something beyond our universe, since our universe is finite. The modern physics tells that something without dimensions and energy was created and disintegrated in the sheer vacuum. But at one point, it got through a barrier to exist with energy and the allowable smallest dimensions (10^-35 meters). Since then, this energy unfold itself generating time and space. The frame of our universe was built in which time started to flow while the energy transformed itself to material. With expansion of the space, many stars were generated to form galaxies and eventually this solar system. But we don't know what exists outside our universe in addition to what the original vacuum was.

In other word, our universe full of stars is akin to a goldfish bowl full of goldfish. So, as a man is outside a goldfish bowl, the God must be outside this universe. What exists outside the outside of our universe. So, it might be reasonable to think that meaning of existence is different in the goldfish bowl and outside the bowl. If man resembles the God in any degree, the God outside our university must be beyond our imagination.

We don't think that our minds and souls have been made only with material. This material universe cannot generate our minds and souls. It can only create molecules and atoms which can build living things, a mass of a huge number of molecules and atoms. But we don't think work of our minds and mysteries of our souls are all different forms and movements of molecules and atoms. Our internal space must be linked to the outside of the universe.

Anyway, this universe is built so well. From only several types of elementary particles which constitute an atom, this whole world on the earth is built. Rocks, water, plants, animals, and human beings are all based on elementary particles. It is the holy design by the God.

Some energy that could escape the vacuum finally made human beings who have worked to manufacture all these products around us, including roads, houses, cars, TV sets, computers, and cellular phones.

But of course what we have invented in the goldfish bowl must be useless outside the bowl. We are so powerless and helpless before the God.

The fact that this universe is finite is a terrible thing. We cannot help but have the fear of the God.

Bubble Universes. The fact that the visible universe came out of a small patch of the entire universe means that we live in one of the many existing universes. We can think of the original universe as a collection of bubbles and we live in one of the bubbles. Because each bubble at the beginning was not in causal relation wit the others, we will never be able to know about the other universes (because in order to send a light signal from one universe to the other it would require light signals to travel for a time longer than the age of the universe).

*** *** *** ***Luk 9:14 For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.Luk 9:15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.Luk 9:16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.Luk 9:17 And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.

Friday, September 13, 2013

To cope with a trend of the Japanese yen getting stronger or specifically as high as around 80 yen per dollar, Japanese businesses have taken various measures, including cost reduction, relocation of manufacturing facilities to overseas, and mergers or acquisition of foreign makers, though presently the exchange rate between the yen and the US dollar has been weakened around 99 yen per dollar.

For example, in 1990, one US dollar was exchanged for 140 yen; the ratio of Japanese businesses having manufacturing plants in foreign countries was 40%; and the ratio of production values recorded in foreign plants of Japanese businesses over total production values of Japanese makers was only 4%.

Compared with the situation in 1990, the yen/dollar exchange rate rose by 70%, the ratio of Japanese makers manufacturing abroad increased by 70%, and the ratio of values of production in foreign countries by Japanese makers rose by 300% in 2012.

In 2012, the number of cases of M and A of foreign countries by Japanese makers was 515, the largest since 1985.

So, Japanese makers have made great efforts to survive while the US has been enjoying the ever weakening dollar against the Japanese yen.

Especially after 2208 or since the fall of US sub-prime loan transactions and the Lehman shock, the US or FRB has increased the amount of dollars circulated in the market three times more. But the Bank of Japan expanded the monetary base only by 45%. This imbalance caused the higher yen, since the exchange rate between two countries follows the difference of quantity of money between the two if other conditions are not so different.

Let's check the trend of the GDP deflators of major countries, which can be calculated by dividing the nominal GDP by the real GDP and then multiplying the result by 100.

The above figure shows that deflation has occurred only in Japan in these 20 years as the value of the GDP deflator of Japan has been below 100%.

However since the regime change in Japan in December 2012, the Bank of Japan has provided more drastically money for the market, resulting in rapid weakening of the Japanese yen and a swift upswing of a Tokyo Stock Exchange index.

Put simply the yen/dollar rate was recovered from 77 yen per dollar to 103 yen/dollar and the Nikkei Index was boosted from 8,000 yen to about 16,000 yen at their peaks in these months. This is what is called the Abenomics.

However the key issue is the deflation in Japan, since it has decreased the salary level of Japanese workers and thus reduced the revenue of the Japanese Government from tax.

Nonetheless the real financial condition of the Japanese Government is not so bad compared with other countries in terms of Government interest payments against its net debts. But as an amount of the nominal debts of the Japanese Government over GDP is 200%, this financial balance sheet is still a big problem.

Finally the number of wealthy class households in Japan has not been changed since 1997 despite this 15-year-long deflation. This deflation has not made rich families in Japan poor but allowed them to keep their position. That must be one of major reasons for a deflation-oriented policy of the Bank of Japan and the Japanese Ministry of Finance.

Incidentally Japan is the second largest country in the world in terms of the number of wealthy people following the US. There are 11,020,000 wealthy people in the US while there are 3,580,000 in Japan as of 2012.

*** *** *** ***Rev 9:12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.Rev 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,Rev 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.Rev 9:15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.Rev 9:16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.Rev 9:17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

In 1985 the Japanese Patent Office celebrated the 100th anniversary of the industrial property system in Japan.

On this occasion, they selected the 10 greatest inventions by Japanese.

The ten inventors are:

Sakichi Toyoda

Patent Number 1195, Wooden Weaving Machine Driven by Human Power

Kokichi Mikimoto

Patent Number 2670, Cultured pearl

Jokichi Takamine

Patent Number 4785, Adrenaline

Kikunae Ikeda

Patent Number 14805, Sodium Glutamate

Umetaro Suzuki

Patent Number 20785, Vitamin B1

Kyota Sugimoto

Patent Number 27877, Japanese typewriter

Kotaro Honda

Patent Number 32234, KS Steel

Hidetsugu Yagi

Patent Number 69115, Yagi Antenna

Yasujiro Niwa

Patent Number 84722, Phototelegraphic Method

Tokushichi Mishima

Patent Number 96371, MKM steel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Japanese_Great_Inventors

But the greatest invention in Japan is undoubtedly Horyu-ji Temple, the world oldest existent wooden structure. This Buddhist temple、31.5 meters tall, is thought to have been built in 607, though there were no reliable records about its foundation. However, it is truly phenomenal that a wooden five-story pagoda survived 1400 years in Japan which has suffered an uncountable number of earthquakes and typhoons in these 1400 years. So, many Japanese engineers and scientists have studied secrets of structure of Horyu-ji.

There are several unique features in the structure of Horyu-ji Temple. But the most outstanding element is a huge vertical wooden pillar which is connected at the top layer of the pagoda to support the pinnacle but suspended without being fixed to other layers; it is placed only on a big stone in the ground. This pillar runs through the center of the structure from the top roof to the underground about 6 meters below the ground surface. However, today its underground part is rotten and lost, so that this pillar is actually dangling from the roof.

This pillar method is today applied to the Tokyo Skytree tower completed in 2012 as the world tallest self-standing tower (634 meters high). This structure element fortifies the anti-earthquake property of Tokyo Skytree. When the M9.0 earthquake occurred under the Pacific 400 km northeast of Tokyo in March 2011, the tower was almost completed and could well withstand the mighty earthquake. No damage was found in Tokyo Skytree after big vibrations of the ground.

It is because the character frequency of the central pillar is different from natural frequencies of other structural elements around the pillar, movements of the pillar and other elements caused by an earthquake cancel each other out. So, the tower can stand stable while receiving big energy of an earthquake.

The original structure of Horyu-ji had been first developed in China and Korea. But both the countries have no such old wooden temples today. The Horyu-ji type of wooden pagodas in other countries were all burnt or demolished through long history in those countries. But only Japan could preserve it to date for 1400 years, partly because the capital of Japan was moved from Nara, where Horyu-ji was built, to Kyoto in 794. Since then, Nara or Yamato Area, 500 km west of Tokyo, became less important politically. Civil wars were not fought in Nara in later centuries. It could at least avoid human-generated calamities.

Anyway, it will be difficult for any new inventions today to survive 1400 years.

So, the best thing in Japan is not necessarily in Tokyo.

*** *** *** ***Gen 9:11 And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.Gen 9:12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:Gen 9:13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.Gen 9:14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:Gen 9:15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.Gen 9:16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.Gen 9:17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

And finally so many innocent people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001 around DC and New York.

In other word, if CAI, the Secret Service, FBI and the police had protected those victims so perfectly, they should not have been killed so tragically.

All I can say is: Believe in the Lord God Almighty, because He sets your fate.....

Incidentally Osama bin Laden was killed by US special troops in 2011.

*** *** *** ***Mat 9:10 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.Mat 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?Mat 9:12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

In 1964, the 18th Summer Olympic Games was held in Tokyo. However it killed a young Japanese marathon man eventually.

Kokichi Tsuburaya (1940 – 1968) was a Japanese athlete who competed mainly in the Marathon.

He competed for Japan in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, where he won the bronze medal when he was overtaken within the final 100 meters by Basil Heatley of the UK.

Shortly after the Tokyo Olympics, Kokichi suffered from an ongoing back problem, known as lumbago. On January 9, 1968, he committed suicide by slashing his wrist in his dormitory room where he had stayed during his training period for the Mexico City Olympics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dkichi_Tsuburaya

Before the marathon race in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the father of Kokichi Tsuburaya told his son not to look behind to check who was running behind and how much he was leading while running a race. In other word, his father told Tsuburaya to act like a man in competition. As Kokichi Tsuburaya so honestly followed this advice in the Olympics marathon race, he could not realize that the British runner was approaching so quickly. So, Tsuburaya was taken by a surprise when he was caught up with Heatley in the Olympics Stadium, so that he could not cope with the desperate situation. Tsuburaya ended the race in the third. But he felt so much ashamed as he lost the lead to the foreign runner while being watched by all the Japanese through TV broadcasting.

This sense of shame must have worked deeply and badly in the mind of Tsuburaya despite his honor of earning a bronze medal, leading to his death so tragically.

There were of course other Japanese Marathon runners in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Especially Kenji Kimihara finished the race at the eighth, though he was the most hopeful marathon runner for Japan in 1964.

After various incidents, Kimihara was qualified again as one of Japanese marathon runners for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. But amazingly in the marathon race in Mexico City, Kimihara faced a similar situation to the one Tsuburaya had experienced in Tokyo.

He was the second when he came back to the stadium where the finish line was set. But a New Zealand runner was chasing Kimihara swiftly. However Kimihara looked behind to confirm if he was safely taking lead. Kimihara saw the third runner Mike Ryan trying to get ahead of him at a higher pace. Kimihara sped up keeping the distance between him and Ryan till the finish. Kimihara won a silver medal.

Later Kimihara said that he felt in the final section in the stadium as if his old friend Tsuburaya had been telling him to just turn around and check if a competitor had been on the neck of him. So, the Japanese marathon team could maintain its honor. They didn't repeat the same mistake, owing the spirit of Tsuburuya.

With the silver medal Kimihara won, Tsuburuya must have been raised to life in the minds of the Japanese people.

*** *** *** ***Act 9:10 And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.Act 9:11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,Act 9:12 And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.

Monday, September 09, 2013

In 1549 Francis Xavier arrived at southern Kyusyu Island, Japan, in order to convert Japanese to Christianity.

Since then for about a century, Christian missionaries were frequently sent to Japan from Spain and Portugal, acquiring hundreds of thousands of believers among not only farmers and townsmen but also samurai feudal lords. But samurai leaders finally decided to put an end to Christian movements in Japan, since Japanese Christians called Kirishitan started to show less respect for samurai authorities than the Vatican. The Tokugawa-shogun led samurai regime eventually cut off the diplomatic/trading relations with western countries, except the Netherlands, so as to prevent religious influences from overseas in 1639.

But termination of Christianity in Japan required a great amount of blood.

Christianity in Japan

The shogunate and imperial government at first supported the Catholic mission and the missionaries, thinking that they would reduce the power of the Buddhist monks, and help trade with Spain and Portugal. However, the Shogunate was also wary of colonialism, seeing that in the Philippines the Spanish had taken power after converting the population. The government increasingly saw Roman Catholicism as a threat, and started persecuting Christians. Christianity was banned and those Japanese who refused to abandon their faith were killed.

On February 5, 1597, twenty-six Christians—six European Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese laymen including three young boys—were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki. These individuals were raised on crosses and then pierced through with spears.

Persecution continued sporadically, breaking out again in 1613 and 1630. On September 10, 1632, 55 Christians were martyred in Nagasaki in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom. At this time Roman Catholicism was officially outlawed. The Church remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the nineteenth century.

Put simply the sword was stronger than a version of Christianity those missionaries around 1600 brought into Japan. If a majority of the Japanese people at the time, including high-ranking samurais, had converted to Christianity, Buddhist samurai leaders might have been defeated in a civil war. But as a matter of fact, in the middle of the 17th century, almost all the Christians were wiped away from the surface of the Japanese society, though some Christians kept their faith under the disguise of ordinary Buddhists in a very unique manner, till the samurai regime fell and Japan opened the nation to start westernization in the late 19th century.

But this record of martyrdom is really grave. In the period of persecution of Japanese Christians by samurais, it is estimated that more than 40,000 believers were killed by samurai. At least concrete records of death penalty are left for about 3,500 believers. This number of martyrs is said to be the largest next to that of Christian victims (about 100,000) executed by the Roman Empire.

So, Japan is the very unique country in terms of propagation of the Christian faith.

(As for the 2020 Olympics, Catholic Madrid and Islamic Istanbul fought without making concession to each other, resulting in Tokyo's winning in a race to be qualified as the host of the Olympics. Spain cannot support Islamic Turkey but can accept mostly Buddhist and slightly Christian Japan even in voting for choosing an Olympics host country.)

*** *** *** ***Mar 9:8 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.Mar 9:9 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.Mar 9:10 And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.

So, on the fatal day of March 11, 2011, there set off were four earthquakes each of which had a scale of more than 7.0.

They eventually triggered more a 15-meter-high tsunami that attacked the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and other nuclear power plants facing the Pacific Ocean. The first wave of the huge tsunami arrived at Fukushima Daiichi at 15:27, 41 minutes after the M9.0 earthquake.

So, it was not a simple single earthquake that caused the huge tsunamis which rushed to coast lines stretching 800 km from Hokkaido down to the south around Tokyo Bay. It was power strong enough to generate four earthquakes of a scale of more than M7.0.

These earthquakes occurｒed northeast of Tokyo on the North America continental plate and the Pacific continental plate. But similar phenomena could happen at any time southwest of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean.

Japanese scientists estimate that a gigantic earthquake can occur southwest of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean on the Philippine plate at a probability of 70 to 80% in 30 years. It means by 2020 when the Tokyo Olympics is held, a big earthquake of an M9 class can occur at 20% or so of probability. So, for Japan to hold the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is very dangerous.

The above figure shows strength of tremors each region of Japan will receive. Red indicates seismic intensity of 7; Orange means strength 6+, yellow strength 6-, green 5+, blue 5-, and light blue 4-. The figure shows the Tokyo area is to experience intensity 5+ or 5- where some furniture fall and people cannot walk normally. In this condition no Olympic games can be practiced in Tokyo.

We had better rethink the plan for Tokyo to host 2020 Olympics.

*** *** *** ***Luk 9:8 And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again.